Eu're joking

GREEK club PAOK Salonika have hit out at Hearts' £100,000 offer for defender Hristos Karipidis, branding it 'a joke'.

The 23-year-old, who can play in the centre or right side of defence, is high on Valdas Ivanauskas' wanted list and passed a medical at Hearts' Riccarton training academy after touching down in Edinburgh on Monday.

The Tynecastle outfit are believed to have lodged an offer of ¤150,000 - around £100,000 - but the financially-stricken Greek club revealed that the bid had fallen well short of their valuation.

It is believed that PAOK want around £600,000 for the player and manager Ilie Dumitrescu said: "I think that the offer is just for laughs, maybe a joke.

"At the moment we are very far apart in our valuation for the player."

Ivanauskas would not give details of the offer to PAOK, but admitted that they were still no closer to agreeing a deal to bring Karipidis to Tynecastle.

He said: "We have not agreed a fee for the player. We have been discussing the contract situation, however the Greek club is making it more difficult than necessary, as usual, it is over money."

Ivanauskas, though, insisted that Hearts would not be backed into a corner over Karipidis and revealed that he is looking at another two or three options for that position if the deal falls through.

He added: "We have got until July 24 if we want him to play in the Champions League third qualifying round and if we do not sign him before then, the deal will not happen. If we do not sign him then we are also looking at two or three other players for that position."

However, the Hearts coach, who is also considering moves for five Lithuanian players currently on trial at the club, is more hopeful of completing a deal for Chilean striker Mauricio Pinilla from Sporting Lisbon: "The situation with the striker is easier but we still await data from the medical.

"It is possible that it could be a loan deal but I don't know the exact details at the moment.

"We hope to have it resolved by the end of the week."

Meanwhile, Ivanauskas will ask for a second opinion before accepting that Jose Goncalves will be ruled out for a further three months.

The defender missed the final weeks of last season with hamstring and calf injuries and underwent surgery during the close season. It had been hoped that he would be back in time for the start of the season but his recovery time has been set back further by a hip injury. Ivansauskas admitted: "The situation with Jose is very difficult, especially since the operation which he had done at the end of the season.

"He suffered another injury recently as well and there is a very low chance of him being involved in the early stages of the season.

"There is a probability of him being out for three months, but before accepting that we are going to be discussing the situation with other specialists."

Defender Andy Webster looks set to seal a move to Premiership side Wigan this week but Ivanauskas revealed that he only found out about the proposed switch when he read the newspapers yesterday morning.

He added: "I didn't know that he could be moving there until I read it in the newspapers.

"I think that, since France, Andy has had thoughts about moving to another club. If that is the case then I wish him good luck."

Taken from the Scotsman